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RP [YSS Kanagawa] Beyond The Border, Upon an Unknown Sea

Arbitrated

The Smollest Smol
🦊 FM of Neshaten
RP Date
YE 42
RP Location
YSS Kanagawa, Currently Unknown Location
Bridge

Gen rubbed at the bridge of his nose as the information came back to him. A glance at the damage reports coming in from across the ship only confirmed what he was hearing.

"Alright," he began, composing his thoughts, "I think we need to accept that the ship is a wounded bird for now. We'll get engineering to work on restoring critical systems, but I don't think we'll be flying at full strength for quite a while. Given the distance we've traveled, I don't believe we can expect any Star Army support.

We're on our own, for now," he finished.

The rest of the discussion was on the specifics of their situation. Uncertainty about where they were due to a combination of the nebula blocking out distant stars and the usual long-range navigation systems being damaged. The lack of most, if not all, of the ship's weapons and major systems. Life support was functional, if in dire shape, and only the ship's slowest engines seemed operational.

After what seemed like hours, Rokusai decided that the crew needed some tangible goal to work towards. If only to take their minds off of the worst case scenario.

"The ring itself seems safe enough, now that it's.. powered down," he said, tapping through a few screens. "Sivins-Hei, you wanted to get a closer look. Suit up with a couple of engineers and go take a look. If the shuttle bay doors open, hopefully one of the Raccoon's will still be functional. If not... well, maybe the engineers can sort that out, too."

"As for the rest of us, we'll head to one of the nearby derelicts. I'd like to get a better idea of what caused all this. Maybe we can even salvage something. Sagara-Hei, set course once Sivins and the others have departed. Given our low speed, I don't think we'll be leaving them in the dust anytime soon."

Gen stood and stretched his neck a little, preparing to say a few last inspiring words before dismissing everyone. "Th-"

As the words began to come out, a proximity alarm began to blare. The sensors, damaged as they were, had picked up the intrusion into their local space far later than was appropriate.

The screen showing space before them was suddenly full of what looked to be a pod of massive, tentacled whales. The largest was the size of, if not larger than, the Kanagawa itself. They undulated slowly along, as if moving on some unseen water. Smaller somethings darted among them, like shoals of fish and dolphin. A few, like the unusual, tentacled dolphin analogs, seemed to occasionally pluck one of the 'fish' out of a school for food.

One of the larger creatures was curious about this newcomer to their territory, giving the Kanagawa a furtive nudge as it swam by. The ship shook violently once again, though far less so than before.

Regaining his footing, the Captain just shook his head at the odd sight drifting further out of view. "And, I suppose.. be careful of the local wildlife."

YSS Kanagawa
Bridge


"H-hai." Aradia's uncertain voice filled the shaken bridge, more than a little nervous at the idea of "swimming" with a kraken-whale without any sort of proverbial safety net to help her out if she got lost... Or if said whale thing was hungry. It probably wasn't territorial. She didn't waste time, though, to test that theory - the tropical-colored Elysian made her way out of the comm and meandered, albeit slowly with the occasional bump of the visiting xeno shaking the ship, back towards the power armor bay. A quick inspection of her armor showed that it was somehow still functional, which was a boon. Much more trustworthy than the standard issue AMES...

"This is Sivins, reporting that our Mindy-IVs are relatively intact and appear to be functional. Whatever hit us must have been attracted to the large power source," she relayed to everyone in the ship via the intercom. After a few moments, she'd suited up, powering the suit on. Then, she added, "Though I don't know if there's been hidden damage yet. If you guys are going to suit up to scout, try to avoid taxing yourselves too much until we figure out how bad the damage really is."

As she went through the power armor's diagnostics, Aradia waited for someone to either respond to her, or join her in the bay. One thing she knew for certain, though,.... She wasn't leaving the ship on her own.
 
YSS Kanagawa
Armor Bay


Thaddeaus Maximus made his way to the armor bay. He did his part to help those in need along the way. He was never one to pass by someone in need of help and even during an emergency that would be no different.

He entered the bay and seen a mix of crew around him. Some looked concerned, others looking completely on edge. For some this was the first time in battle so he was certain the thought of death was on their mind. A brilliant idea crossed his mind. "Fear not my fine crew, for with guns like these there is nothing to fear!!" As his sentence came to a close, his clothes did the opposite. He flexed with all his might and the seams around his shirt burst free. The fabric slowly fell away from his body, leaving nothing but lean Nepleslian sexy behind. The sight was so bright it was blinding. At some point he oiled himself between engineering and the armor bay, let us hope this isn't flammable.

"Come, we have things to save and stuff to break." He had swung an arm around another crew and pulled them along towards the row of armors. Thad wasted no time getting into his suit. A slightly more easy task now that he was shirtless and oiled up like a stripper. The HUD came to life and run down the standard things he didn't really care about. Green means go he always thought to himself.

"I will make my way to outside the ship and have a look." He said over comms.
 
YSS Kanagawa
Ken had eventually managed to free Mia and Himself, having torn away a maintenance panel to trigger the manual override within all of the blast doors re-opened themselves one by one, powerful systems of hydraulics and electromagnets whining while trying to do their best given the ships' somewhat crippled status. Having been no injured personnel in their immediate vicinity the Azure Nepleslian sent Santo-Hei Barber on her way before jogging off to respond to the beckoning call of his colourful little Elysian friend.

Armor Bay
Ken took a few quick steps into the PA bay to join the others in suiting up, chest rising and falling from the quick jaunt over as the big guy approached his own suit, his Type 35 duty jacket still back in the caretaker's room as the lad began kicking off his boots, simply scoffing at his fellow Nep's need to get stark naked before finally speaking up.

"Hey. big guy," Ken started, his muscled back pressing through the white material of his undershirt as he leaned forwards to peel off those boots. "Take someone with you just in case anything sensitive is on it's last legs," he offered before speaking to everyone in the PA bay, powering up a volumetric display near his own Mindy to run some quick diagnostics on it, "Everyone should try to get some juice into their emergency capacitors too, until we get a better grasp on the fuckery at work here having some reserve power hopefully isn't gong to hurt anybody."

With the panel-less red-panel having said what he felt needed to be said he moved to suit up, squishy hemosynthetic interior of his Mindy wrapping itself around the Nepleslian's muscled frame, his bodily proportions making the usually sleek blue suit look a little odd but he was certainly not some slim Neko so it made sense~

"Ishikawa-Hei checking in, suits seem to be running a little worse than they could be but they still look capable, I'll keep an eye on your diagnostics as they come in. Over," the technician's deep voice declared, filtering through the comms system of his fellow suited-up personnel. He was understandably stressed, and felt a little clammy before his suit's temperature control kicked in, but didn't want to be seen as the weak link of those remaining so opted to keep his cool for the time being.
 
YSS Kanagawa Deck 4

The love tap of the Xeno woke Akira from her mini-coma. She promptly screamed out in pain as her nerves reported to her brain of the shattered shoulder, injury to her head, and missing right leg. Gritting in pain as the backlog of data had been finally cleared, she looked around her surroundings in a somewhat panicked state as she assessed her location and any immediate dangers.

With pained eyes, she saw the signage for Engineering. When she looked over at the half-opened door of the Upper Cargo Bay, she knew she was on Deck 4. She looked up at the blown conduits and fallen support structs as she completed her scan of her surroundings. She had no idea if she was originally here or just happened to end up here from another location. But she decided that figuring out what had happened to her was pointless. She also decided that remaining where she was in hope that someone would find her seemed equally pointless to the infantry veteran.

With a pained yell, she engaged her weakened inertia abilities and one good working arm and proceeded to make her slow crawl to Deck 4's Zero-G passageway and up it to Deck 1. For there was only one thing raging on her mind right now: "Get to the Power Armor! Get to the Power Armor!"

Deck 1, Power Armor Bay

After what felt like a few days, Akira crawled her way out of the zero-g passageway. She looks over at the Medical Bay for a moment and forgets she is a commissioned officer and should do the right thing. Instead, she defaulted to her NCO days and hobbles her way into the Power Armor Bay.

She looks at her still largely undamaged Keiko and breathes a sigh of relief.
 
The power armor bay was abuzz with activity, though the feelings of those within could mostly be defined as 'shell-shocked'. More than one of the occupants had seen someone simply vanish in front of them. Not all of those who had vanished had done so entirely.

One young Neko muttered to herself as she suited up. "Thrown to who knows where, the ship torn to pieces, and the Captain wants us to go out for a swim with the locals? Not exactly what I signed up for."

Another spoke, voice coming from the suit's speakers, "We didn't exactly sign up in the first place, Kit. If we had, I'm pretty sure the recruitment posters said something along the lines of 'See distant stars! Meet exotic aliens! Kill them, sometimes!' which is - well, from what I've heard these stars are about as distant as it gets."

The first Neko gave a noncommittal grunt as she slipped on her Mindy's helmet.

Both of them walked over to Thad, listening as Ishikawa gave them all his take on their suits' statuses.


Back on the bridge, the Captain was drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair. The original plan he'd issued - send a portion of the crew to investigate the apparently abandoned gateway and the other portion to investigate the apparently abandoned derelicts - had to be revised. The strange space-borne creatures seemed to be non-hostile so far, but that didn't mean they'd stay that way.

'Hell,' he thought with a sigh, 'as big as some of those are, they might think a Mindy was just a snack.'

Gen shook his head a bit to clear the thought. He opened a comm to those in the Power Armor Bay.

"Change of plans," he said, voice betraying none of the doubt or worry that he held, "until we know more about our new neighbors, I don't want to take the risk of leaving a portion of you on your own. You'll all be checking out one of these derelicts. Maybe see if we can learn a bit about.. whatever those are."

The comm line closed, though he left himself open for any follow-up messages. He looked towards Kai. "Helmsman, do your best to get us near the closest derelict. If things take a poor turn, I want to be able to retrieve everyone quickly."

Kai issued an affirmative, though his tone was more morose than Gen had expected. Something - more than just the usual shit the rest of them seemed to be in - was bothering the man, but the Captain wasn't sure what just yet. Perhaps there would be time for a question while the away team was investigating.

***
The Kanagawa limped its way to the nearest derelict. It would be some time before she could reach her usual speeds. Even maintaining a steady course was a challenge for the beleaguered ship, its engines periodically giving out and coming back online as self-repair systems tried to keep everything together.

The derelict itself - part of the derelict, Gen realized as they drew nearer - was truly massive. The section they were nearing was at least a kilometer long. Judging by the nearby debris and the other pieces that they could see, the entire vessel had been bigger than Yamatai's largest by quite a bit. Before it had been blown up by something, anyways.

Gen furrowed his brow as the Kanagawa began to slow, wondering what could take out a ship that big.

"Alright, Away Team," Gen said over the comms once more, "We're in position. Go take a look around. If we can get a better understanding how how old this derelict is or what those creatures are, we might be able to start piecing together a plan."
 
Power Armor Bay

"Initiating Start-up Sequence...
Power Systems online... anomaly detected
Neural Link established...

Reduced aether power output detected, recommend having a technician address the issue...
Welcome back Chui Suzuki...
Severe injuries detected in operator. Recommend seeing medical personnel."


"Not now Ronin. I am stable... for the most part." She said as she walked over to the armory and took out a coherent aether rifle. She inspected the weapon before shouldering it on her right side.

"Very well Chui, all sensors are online."

Akira walked over to the exit and assumed a seiza position as she waited upon hearing about a change of plans. She listened to the pair of Nekos, but did not respond to either of them. She just watched Thad with her armor's Optical Tracking System, so she never directly looked at him. She then took the time to link with the ship's AI and go over what had been going out since she was knocked out.

Upon hearing the order to head out, she finally stood up and looked at Thad.

"Alright, time to dance and see where the hell we are. Unless something is threatening the Kanagawa or a crew member, weapon safeties on safe. No point in upsetting these things." She said before entering space and moved towards an opening of the derelict.

"Faint aether signatures detected, highlighting sources..."

"Wa..." Akira just simply said as she looked at the overlaid creatures. "Are these ships?"

"Unknown..."

"Are they living organisms?"

"Unknown..."

"Relay your findings to the Kanagawa AI and coordinate with the ship's sensors if they are out." she said as she landed. She turned on her head's flashlight and looked around. She was still highly angered from the situation and something needed to die, but she kept that side of her in check for the time being.
 
YSS Kanagawa
Power Armor Bay


"Disembarking now," the miniature Elysian's voice called out through the speakers, her armored wings flitting briefly as she entered the vacuum of space - and left the weakened gravitational field of her mothership. She kept the Plumeria between herself and the nearest... Creatures... until the rest of the group followed her out, and then beelined right to the derelict.

"Anyone got a good, penetrating scanner here? This thing's the size of a city!" Aradia exclaimed as she approached the relic, firmly kicking its armored body once she'd gotten close enough. "Let's try and find a way inside. The sooner we're no longer exposed to everything, the safer we are while exploring this place - and keep tabs on our path! We don't need to be losing ourselves in these..."

A flash of light caught Aradia's eye; she twisted over to get a better look, then twisted again. "Are you guys seeing this? There's something approaching us - somethings? Several flashing lights, approaching slowly." As the.... Hard-to-identify creatures approached, Aradia's hand crept to grab her beam-rifle. In case they were hostile.
 
YSS Kanagawa
Power Armor Bay

Thad did not give much reply back to the rest of his team till they were completely out in space. His focus was on the next steps forward. They were in the middle of nowhere on a busted ship and crew morale was low though slightly positive. He was thankful the ship had not slipped into a panic. That would have been super bad, more so than the situation they find themselves in.

"If you can't find a good penetration, just let me know and be happy to fill your need." Thad called out over comms in reply to the Aradia. After a long pause he completed his thought. "I bet I can punch a hole in this ship to give us a way inside." He continued to drift toward the derelict though he made a point to keep close to Akira. He had noticed she was pretty beat up as she got into her armor.

Thad was looking around and noticed the creature moving towards the group. He seen some of them take up arms. He put his hand into the air and called out over comms. "Hold your fire, let us not give it reason to see us as hostile. It might just be as curious as we are of it." He tipped his head to one side as he looked over the creature. The most pressing thought, if this is friendly, how would he fit this onto the ship to keep as a pet you thought to himself.
 
YSS Kanagawa

Power Armor Bay

Al finished patching one of the suits enough so that he could handle the trip outside the ship. With his work finished he stood up and called the pilot over and giving them the okay to begin their mission. He watched them go while rubbing the now blood-soaked bandage wrapped around his head and thought that he would need to get the wound looked at soon. The desperate state of the ship though kept him from heading to the medical bay pulling up the list of repairs that still needed to be done Al saw the next suit he needed to work on and made his way to it.
 
Ken wasn't far behind the others as he too took a few careful steps out into the void, racking his PAAR-40's charging handle to chamber the first round before following along with gentle bursts of thrust from his mindy's 'wings'. Aradia's comment got the azue-haired Nepleslian thinking and the man took a second to read the limited statistics he could quickly access on Akira's armour before speaking up, giving Thad's offer to the small Elysian a glaring and judgemental yet unseen squint before opening his mouth.

"Excuse me, Suzuki-Chui, but Keiko's are meant to have a pretty potent sensory array right? is there something you could~" he trailed off, finally noticing the small motes of light drifting around, causing his pupils to dilate and a quick gasp to be sucked into his broad chest as Kendo racked his rifle's charging handle again. The instinctual movement sent a perfectly good 7x20mm LASR Type B grey-tip round cartwheeling off into the void as the bullpup rifle was raised up, his heartrate spiked but Ken took a second to collect his thoughts and calm his voice before speaking.

"...the fuck are those things? Let's hope they're not Scalar-capable, our suits are barely holding together as is," the big guy commented, keeping his rifle trained on the creatures though still maintained perfect trigger discipline despite all the fuckery going on around him.
 
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The away team found themselves encircled by something like fish with delicate fin trails and lines of pulsing, white-blue lights running down their sides. The creatures were clearly alien from up close, uncanny in a dozen ways, but some trick of convergent design made them undoubtedly fish-like in shape.

The light patterns on their sides flashed all at once and they quickly dispersed, carried away by some invisible force.

A shadow fell upon them, light from the nebula blocked by some newcomer. It drew nearer, looking decidedly more and more shark-like as it came into better resolution. Wicked teeth and sharp edges completed the analog, triggering all the classic neurological warning signs.

Not far from their position, other residents of the derelict began to skitter from behind a variety of metal outcroppings toward a single point. The clattering, crab-like things weren't that different in size from a Neko in her Mindy, suggesting that there might be a way inside.
 
The Derelict

"Guys. I think we should move... Now. That's definitely a predator and I don't feel like becoming a meal tonight," Aradia's voice squeaked quietly through everyone's mind. Trusting her instincts over her mind, the winged woman started gliding across the surface of the derelict, following the approximate path of the... Barnacle crabs? Keeping her eyes on the approaching shark-like entity, Aradia was relying on her peripheral vision for guidance.

"Keep your weapons trained. If this thing charges, shoot it," the skittish birb commanded.



Oh boy, she hoped her radio would still be working...
 
Akira let her AI record and try to analyze the light patterns of the (Space?) fish. It was good for her, as it and the environment were calming her down. Despite what had happened to them, this was a once in a lifetime type of adventure the Kami had decided to plop in her lap.

But she did not have much time to think more into her Shinto research when her sensors were going bonkers over the approaching (Space?) shark. Seeing the crabs and where they were going, she pointed at the spot with her hand.

"Congratulations Maximus-hei (that felt odd to her), you are my temporary 2nd in command. Get everyone inside now!" Akira said as she unholstered her coherent aether rifle.
 
Thad got the message that he was now second in command. Already moving up in the world of star army it would seem. "You got it boss." He called out over the comms channel back to Akira. "Will have to work on being a shark tamer another day." The light chuckle broadcasting over the open comms. He always wanted an amazing pet to call his own. Thought a dragon or big bear would be a good fit. Though a space shark does have a certain level of sexy too it.

He followed along chasing after the crab looking creatures.
 
Taharial had decided to stay on the Kanagawa as it was easier for her to treat anyone and if needed she could get over to the derelict with a first aid kit quickly. She was keeping up with what was going over the open comm channels and sighed to herself "They are going to get themselves killed or worst with all of this stuff." With a grunt she picked up the first aid bag she had prepared in case it was needed and left to get her power armour on.

Once she was suited up she switched the comms on "I am coming out there to make sure none of you guys die since it seems we will have a little problem of travel between the derelict and our vessel with that shark as you call it out there." She hated the idea of getting pasted the things around this derelict to get to the crew but knew it must be done or one of them were going to end up messed up and in a life threatening condition without much help.

She thought if she skated around the area that the others went through she would have a better chance of getting to the others and did just that, as she kept up where the others were. Being out alone and with just these weird creatures just swimming around would be a great research afternoon in her mind, but she had bigger fish to fry, most importantly that of making sure no one would die on this ship. As she started to get closer to the group, that is when the worst thought that went through her mind while getting her suit on. One of these sharks, she wasn't sure if it had been following her or just noticed her but it was coming to her now. She had to think quickly and the only thing she had ready was that bag, cursing to herself forgetting that the comm channel was still open, she ditched her bag, throwing it towards the shark-alien thing, as she headed towards where the others were a little quicker "well good news and bad news team, I am close to you guys, but I had to give up the medical supplies I was carrying to get here."
 
One of Many Derelicts
"Yeah getting out of that thing's way is definitely a good idea, agreed," Ken half-heartedly chuckled into his helmet before squeezing his bulk through the gap and shuffling along to make room for the others, making a mental note to check that medkit's trajectory and send a FARS after it once they had some room to breathe, it seemed like a waste to just leave that there...

"Everyone still with us and accounted for?" the blue-haired Nepper started checking, still not 100% trusting the information his chromatically-aberrated HUD was feeding his eyes.
 
The shark-thing that had been pursuing Taharial gladly accepted her bag instead, its alien maw opening to reveal an oddly glowing gullet and rows of terrible teeth. It gnawed at the bag, tossing it about in search of something edible. When it realized it would not be finding anything suitable, it turned its attention back to the escaping Elysian.

Streamers of light loosed from its body as it shot towards her. Its mouth opened wider and wider as it closed on her, ready to swallow her in a single bite if given the opportunity.

***
The derelict's interior was relatively intact - except for the parts that had been clearly cut through or blown off by some ancient battle. A strange, rocky growth grew on most of the surfaces. Little, glowing fans, stalks, and undulating masses of life littered the rock. Creatures of some kind darted around, seeming to swim, like the ones outside the derelict, though there was certainly no atmosphere or otherwise for them to swim through. These, too, had an oddly alluring electric glow of stripes along their bodies.

One of the crabs turned to look at the newcomers to its metal home. It was not pleased to see them there, indicated easily by how it stood tall and clacked its pincers at them. It took a step in their direction, showing through aggressive posturing that it would attack any who drew near.
 
Akira positioned herself outside of the opening to provide overwatch and to make sure everyone was safely inside before she went in. But she saw that Taharial's trick was much more short term than she realized. Unsheathing her aether coherent rifle, she started to fire controlled beams of aether energy to either dissuade it from its current course or to neutralize the threat. She looked to see how the wildlife and area reacted to her choice of action.

She will be damned if anyone is getting eaten by something in space...
 
Taharial was shocked by what seemed to be one of her crew mates would be shooting at her, until she realized they were attacking something behind her. She understood what had happened, the shark unsatisfied with the piece of plastic and metal she had tricked it with was swimming after her. She swore to herself as she aimed for where her crew mate was firing from "Hopefully I will get to you guys before that thing gets too close." She hated being this far out from the group, but she hoped with them shooting and either getting a few hits or at least getting it to run would increase her chance to get to the others "Whoever that is shooting though, is going to get a thank you kiss from me for making sure I don't become shark bait."
 
While Akira unleashed Aetheric hell Kendo was much more concerned with making sure what the team currently perceived as a safe shelter was actually somewhat safe, the big buff Nepper trying to keep everything close to his center of mass, not wanting to touch any of the alluringly glowing objects in the immediate vicinity lest he wishes to end up like some dumb scientist from a B-tier horror movie.

Though he was also painfully aware of the locals getting a bit annoyed with the presence of the Mindys, and gulped loudly before speaking.

"Hey guys be careful not to touch anything unless we have to, we don't know if any of it is caustic~ even if I doubt it could get through our armour we still should exercise a healthy bit of caution," Ken offered before turning to see if they could get deeper into the ship through some of the damage that had been done to it possibly eons ago, sweeping his helmet around and trying to take some scans even if these were less than ideal conditions to collect data in.
 
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